The Renal Pathology Society (RPS) held a Board of Directors meeting on Sunday at 12pm, March 25, 2007 during the annual USCAP meeting at the Manchester Grand Hyatt in San Diego, California.

In attendance were:  Drs. Bonsib, Ferrario, Haas, Magil, Cook, Seshan, Barisoni, Bruijn, Picken and Liapis
Meeting was called to order by RPS President Steve Bonsib
Fall 2006 RPS meeting minutes prepared by RPS secretary were approved.
President’s agenda for the current meeting was approved.
Reports of the committees are as follows:

 International Committee: Surya Seshan, chair
One of the goals of the International Committee is recruitment of local geographical representatives, current or potential RPS members, who will in turn help to increase the awareness of RPS activities and help to collect data from renal pathology practices in the area.  A survey is being prepared to that end and will be shared with the BOD after being finalized by the committee members. 
Survey of status of renal pathology practices (Draft).
Collection and processing of renal biopsy tissue, thin sectioning and special stains
Level of pathology training
Standard of renal pathology reporting, volume of cases
Immunofluorescence and electron microscopy
Educational needs-access to textbooks, case seminars, and courses
Availability of resources
Interaction with clinical nephrologists/clinicians

There has been a lag in recruitment in geographical representatives from several locations.  Efforts are ongoing to identify individuals with an interest in renal pathology activities and recruit representatives from Australia/New Zealand, Africa, Eastern Europe and Russia. Any volunteers or nominations by RPS members are welcome.

Some of the established renal pathology societies (European Nephropathology working group [2003], Japanese Renal Pathology Society [2002], and the Indian Society of Renal Pathology and Transplantation [2004]) have expressed interest in sharing information of their regional activities and form an alliance for future collaborative endeavours with RPS. These bodies have substantial membership and have sent a report of their activities during the past two years. They include conducting courses on basic renal pathology, workshops, case seminars, and updates at an advanced level as well as participation with their clinical nephrology/transplantation societies. We hope to initiate interaction with other Renal Pathology Societies.

Identify certain areas or countries where potential RPS sponsored courses and meetings may be beneficial. Several RPS members are already travelling to these areas to take part in courses and workshops.

Another proposal from the international committee is possible sponsorship of promising trainees or junior faculty from other countries by established RPS members. They can act as mentors and host them in their laboratories and departments for 3-6 months, where the participant could bear the expense of travel and local stay.

Nominating & Awards: Jan Bruijn, chair

The committee nominated 3 candidates (Pat Walker, Praveen Chandler and Terry Cook) for the election of a new councilor. Terry Cook was the successful candidate.

In keeping with the RPS Bylaws, the incoming Nominating and Awards Committee 2007 has determined the winners for the RPS Striker Young Investigator Award 2007 and the Churg Award 2007. These winners were unanimously chosen from the nominees by the members of the RPS Nominating and Awards Committee. The winner for the Chung Award was Seymour Rosen. The Young Investigator Award went to Joris J. Roelofs from Holland, who is working with Dr. Jan Weening.

Financial Report: Pat Walker, chair
Pat Walker presented the current balance in the RPS account standing at: $39,823.77
Funds held for the Pirani award $6,660 and Churg award ~$5,000 total ~$11,660
Available Balance ~$28,163.
Dues received from only ~100 members to date. Typically about 250 members pay dues regularly. The question of what to do with membership status if in arrears was discussed.  It was agreed to remind members to pay the dues once more. Those in arrears for >2years will receive a letter from the current membership committee chair Dr. Bajema. Those still in arrears 6 months after the letter is sent will be removed from membership.
The next issue was how to deal with support requests for invited speakers at RPS Sponsored events. RPS members speaking at RPS sponsored events usually cover their own expenses (though exceptions have occurred). Non-RPS members travelling to an event in North America that are invited to an RPS sponsored meeting are reimbursed as follows:
1.             Round trip economy airfare
2.             One night hotel fare at the meeting site hotel
3.             Miscellaneous expense including ground transport and meal
4.             Maximum allowed $1500: this should cover the entire cost for those in North America and hopefully most of the expenses for international speakers.
We have supported RPS members in the recent past based on information in the request and with approval of the Board of Directors.
Current Request for one of the speakers at the upcoming ASN Renal Case Conferences: She has requested support. One venue would be the ASN’s travel support. The ASN suggested we get a North American or someone attending the ASN because they are not interested in supporting someone for the case conference. Request to pay for this speaker by RPS was denied by the BOD. It was decided to get another speaker. Both Drs Cook and Liapis suggested we standardize this process rather than continue on an ad hoc basis.

Proposed change to membership categories

Proposal
Current Bylaws includes the following:
            Regular Members
            Emeritus Members
            Junior Members

Add two more categories to the current ones.
Associate Members (lower dues to accommodate pathologists in developing
Nations)
Sustaining Members (higher rate to increase funding)
These are much like the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology, the American Society of Nephrology and the College of American Pathologists.

Yet another category to consider:
            Fellow of the Renal Pathology Society
A Fellow of the RPS would demonstrate ongoing scholarship and be required to attend RPS meetings (similar to Fellow of the ASN).
There would be a fee associated with this level of participation that would not be unreasonable but would be higher than regular or sustaining membership.

This issue was tabled for another session.

Foundation support for the RPS
This is not a trivial challenge and it is listed as one of our goals as a committee. There are hundreds of thousands of foundations so searching them is not trivial. Perhaps the research support unit at one of the universities represented by our committee membership could help.
If not, there are online resources that we can use for a hefty fee (see an example at:
http://fconline.fdncenter.org/ .  The discussion was brought to the business meeting.

Proposals Separate from the Finance Committee

The RPS should develop a Strategic Plan
The RPS is 30 years old. A detailed re-evaluation of its purpose and role in the 21st century is suggested. Such foundational questions as Mission and Purpose should start the discussion. Followed by the obvious, how to accomplish the Mission and Purpose. Subsets of this initiative might include, among others:  Bylaws review; scope of membership (membership requirements; membership benefits); strategic links with other organizations (ASN, ASPN, NKF, Am Board of Pathology, other Pathology Groups et al); educational offerings (satellite meetings, publications (consider being a subset of a journal perhaps), CME, Recertification training, et al); Medicine and Politics (Research Funding, do we have a role in developing RVU’s (why is the renal biopsy coded 88305), is someone looking out for our interests on State and National issues etc).

It was agreed that this worthwhile initiative will be Steve’s Bonsib agenda in collaboration with Pat Walker.

Communications & Publications: Suzanne Meleg-Smith, chair
A new RPS online banking account is needed
The project to install an on-line payment option for dues, donations, etc, did not materialize.  The problem is simple and can be solved.
Problem: Pay-Pal is the online payment engine that is acceptable to the Cornell server - the RPS website functions through the Cornell server. The present bank account of the RPS is not compatible with Pay-Pal. Solution: in order to make the on-line payments a reality, the RPS needs a Pay-pal compatible bank account.  If the BOD is in agreement that the on-line payment would be an asset to the RPS, I would like the BOD to approve a separate bank account for this purpose.

Request was approved. We’ll have a new on line account linked to the RPS website.

The other request to the BOD is for all committee chairs to submit changes or additions relating to their activities ASAP, so that they can be posted on the website.  This is especially relevant immediately before and after RPS meetings, when the website is at its highest use.
We have agreed that a manual of operations would be useful and should be posted on the website.  At present, only 4 of 8 committees have posted this info.

Education & Scientific: Laura Barisoni, chair
- 4th Satellite RPS-KUFA meeting in Istanbul '07

1. The committee is organizing the 4th satellite meeting in Istanbul. It will take place at the Hilton hotel, Mercury room; on September 13th from 8:30 am to 1 pm. Registration will be at 8 am at the door. Pre-registration will open on May 1st. Helen Liapis will be involved in organizing registration on the web or via fax. Registration for the meeting will be $50.
2. Invited speakers have accepted to participate and travel and hotel expenses will be covered by RPS up to 500 euros. The financial committee has approved these expenses.
3. Coffee break will be at lest in part sponsored by Aperio. Aperio was invited to give a short presentation on their telepathology system. This presentation will be complementary to Drs Sen’s and Picken’s presentations to propose collaborative studies on amyloidosis. The total cost for room, digital system, microphone and coffee, drinks and sweets for 50 people will be approximately 2,000 Euro.
4. Program has been posted on our website and posters and flyers made to distribute at the USCAP and other national and international meetings.
5. Organize a dinner on Sept 12th in collaboration with the WG
6. Encourage participation in other renal societies in particular the European Working group in the ESP meeting in September 2008 to promote education in renal pathology.
7. Introduce Telepathology and virtual microscopy in the RPS website as a tool to promote education and scientific collaborations.
8. Support the creation of the first international Amyloid collaborative studies.
9. Promote the creation of a new classification system and scoring system for amyloidosis which will be first presented in Istanbul at the 4th satellite meeting.
10.  International meetings endorsed by the RPS so far:
1. International lupus 2008 in Milan
2. NDT meeting in Barcelona May 2007

- Mission statement of this committee was submitted to the website

KUFA Grants: Terry Cook, chair
- Committee members: Surya Seshan, Luan Truong

KUFA generously offered to fund 2 grants of $5,000 each. A call for applications was sent out at the beginning of December with a deadline for applications of 15th January 2007.

Four applications were received, all of which were suitable for consideration for funding. The Committee discussed the grants by telephone conference (joined by Carol Brower from KUFA) and there was unanimous approval for awarding grants to the following projects:

1. Dr. Mark Haas, Johns Hopkins for a project entitled ‘Rejection versus accommodation of renal allografts exposed to anti-donor antibody: possible role of complement regulatory proteins’
2. Dr. Sanjay Jain, Washington University School of Medicine for a project entitled ‘Role of RET signalling in kidney health and disease’

Membership: Ingeborg Bajema, chair
Members: Ian Gibson, Michio Nagata, Carrie Philips

- New members in 2007 since the first of January 2007, 8 candidates applied for RPS membership. 7 members were approved by the committee, including 4 regular and 3 junior members. One application is still pending because no CV was sent in.
One member requested emeritus status.
Details of new members are enlisted below.

- Members submitted/approved by Maria Picken prior to January 1, 2007. Until end of December 2006, 30 new members (names already posted) were recruited including 19 regular and 11 junior. Two members requested emeritus status.

Program Committee: Alex Magil, chair
Members M. Haas, A. Herzenberg, M. Roos van Groningen

The Program Committee has the program for the RPS companion meeting in conjunction with the 2008 USCAP meeting in Denver. The title of the symposium is “Complement in the Pathogenesis of Renal Diseases” and four potential speakers have been invited. Currently Bob Colvin (Complement in Renal Transplant Rejection), Charles Jennette (Complement in ANCA Vasculitis & Glomerulonephritis) and Terry Cook (Complement in lupus Nephritis) have accepted our invitation. We are waiting to hear from David Salant (Complement in Membranous Glomerulopathy).
The program was met with the BOD’S satisfaction. Dr.  Barisoni suggested that  a mix of junior and senior RPS members to serve as invited speakers would be desirable.

Research: Franco Ferrario
- Ongoing projects:

1. The paper on DDD realized by P.Walker, F.Ferrario,K.Joh and S.Bonsib is in final revision for publication in Modern Pathology.
2. The paper on “actual practice in nephrology” realized by J. Pullman, F. Ferrario and C. Nast will appear in the March issue of Advances in Anatomic Pathology.
3. Classification of IgA Nephropathy: the project is going on very well with a new circulation of slides.
4. Ian Roberts is a responsible for pathological part of the project (doing a very good job) and for the organization of future meetings to finalise this important study.
5. Questionnaire on use of ISN/RPS Lupus classification: Terry Cook will produce a report.
6. New proposal (by F.Ferrario): ANCA-associated renal vsculitis: frequency of small, medium and large size vessel arteritis in renal biopsies -for details please see under collaborative studies.

Other projects not yet in progress:

1. Classification of Diabetic Nephropathy (by Emile de Heer): I contacted Emile who assured me that he will produce a study protocol soon.
2. Multicenter retrospective study on follow-up biopies in Lupus Nephritis (by F. Ferrario): to validate a new classification, to evaluate the transformation from one class to another (in particular class III and IV-S to class IV-G) to evaluate the clinical relevance of class II biopsies for therapy and outcome. Possible sponsor ASPREVA.

Meetings in which the RPS is or will be involved:
1) Official CME Course on Renal Pathology at next ERA-EDTA Congress (Barcelona-21 June 2007) organized by V.Nickeleit, M.P.Rastaldi and F.Ferrario (see program on RPS web-site).
2) International vasculitis meeting during the San Carlo Borromeo Advances in Nephrology (Milan December 2007) organized by D Jayne and F.Ferrario with the sponsorization of ASPREVA.(similar to last Milan International meeting on lupus nephritis).
3) ERA-EDTA , EULAR and RPS joint International meeting on Lupus on 2008 (September?) with sponsorship by ASPREVA and probably ROCHE (actual stearing committee: D.Jayne, R Coppo and F. Ferrario).

Also submitted from Randy Hennigar at Emory in Atlanta, was a proposal for a collaborative study to address the issue of CNI in renal transplant biopsies asking the RPS to actively sponsor the project. Design approaches and proposals are pending.

Training programs: Bob Colvin
- None

D. Other Old/New business
Steve Bonsib, President
- Operating manual for the RPS to include deadlines to be met by incoming president was prepared by Steve Bonsib. Is currently being edited to be posted in the website soon.

- The venue for the 5th satellite meeting was discussed. Start early and identify the local organizer was agreed. Keep alternating US with other destinations was also agreed upon.

- Naming Ad hoc members to the RPS BOD KUFA, ASN, American Society of Pediatric Nephrology: Update

Secretary Treasurer: Helen Liapis

Membership issues and bylaws:
Several questions recently brought forth by RPS members on having continuity in the committees were addressed.
A consensus was reached to have 2-3 year requirement before RPS members are asked to serve in a committee. PhDs can serve as committee chairs.
The question whether the RPS bylaws should be amended to allow for voting rights to members emeriti was rejected. However, an amendment was favored to introduce committee Vice Chairs when the Chair is abroad so that the likelihood of representation at the BOD meeting is increased.  The system of ascension through the committee ranks was proposed to be re-implemented. In this system each committee could have a Vice Chair. A proposal will be drafted by the president to be considered by the BOD.

The BOD meeting was adjourned at 2.30pm. It was decided to reserve a room for 2 hours for the BOD session next time.